The malleability of the mind is an essential aspect of human evolution. It allows for us to be individuals, to learn, to prioritize, and to specialize in the disciplines and pursuits that we care most about. But for all its virtues, this same malleability that catalyzes so much personal growth also leaves us wide open to the manipulations of others. Known euphemistically as brainwashing, this systematic conditioning is the cruellest weapon in the toolbox of dictators and cult leaders, generals and gurus, allowing them to commandeer our freewill in the name of a righteous cause, their righteous cause. It permits them to mercilessly hollow-out their followers, filling in that emptiness with codes and commands that will ensure fealty. Rarely has its consequences been so vividly demonstrated than in this, the second instalment in Mr. McCarthy's war-torn depiction of the future.
It is the 22nd century and Earth has been sucked dry. Exhausted by hundreds of years of accelerated extraction, its resources have been pulled from the ground to shape cars and cities, weapons and civilizations that were never efficiently recycled. They didn't have to be. There was always more mines to dig, more ore to find, more materials from which to craft. But now that this extractive free ride is at an end, the world's many powerful nations, believing that they have no other choice, are forced to go to war with those few invaluable pockets that remain, turning the surface radioactive in order to preserve the treasures that lie beneath.
In the pursuit of this endless war, the various factions have turned to genetic engineering to augment their war machines. Human casualties are politically unpopular, not to mention costly. If these priceless units can be armored with battalions of tank-grown soldiers, who can be ordered to fill out the front lines of combat, the human cost can be reduced without the unwanted necessity of halting operations. In the United States, males were the first to be grown, but their aggression proved uncontrollable, compelling military geneticists to turn to more pliant females into which they poured a toxic blend of theology and patriotism to create the perfectly obedient and yet perfectly deadly supersoldier. From the wintery front lines of Russia to the warm freedom of Thailand, this is their story.
Exogene is a march through Hell. Swapping out Germline's established characters for a new roster of American genetics, it is a relentlessly savage demonstration of the death cult, that most destructive skein of brainwashing. Through the eyes of Katherine, a combat veteran approaching the end of her young shelf-life, and Megan, her lover and unit leader, we come to understand the terrifying and degrading plight of cannon-fodder, watching all semblance of morality and human decency give way to political and military necessity. Indoctrinated into a life they never chose, the Gees are living beings reduced to serving a single, nihilistic purpose, to kill in the name of a god invented to control them.
This is the work's primary virtue. For in holding up this albeit extreme example of slave labor, Mr. McCarthy reminds us of our species' dubious history when it comes to expediency. Be they the soldiers hurled into war or the subhumans forced to toil in factories and plantations, generations of humanity have found ways of excusing away their immorality. Why? Because they stood to profit from it. They stood to reap rewards that were too desirable to turn down, even if they came at the cost of that most universal right of any living creature, personal freedom. It's a lesson worth teaching. For we stand now at the threshold of unimaginable science ranging from artificial intelligence to genetically modified humans, advances which will allow us to once again selfishly capitalize on the work of creatures it's convenient to not consider human.
It was a bold decision to switch away from the war-correspondent ethos of Germline to the themes detailed above. It ensures that Mr. McCarthy's series stays fresh and confrontational. And yet, for all of Exogene's value, there is a relentlessness about the violence and the depravity here that numbs the spirit. This may well have been Mr. McCarthy's aim; for anyone would be numbed if forced to suffer the degradations herein. And yet, the novel's power lies in the extent to which it is a gauntleted punch to the face, in which case numbness is not a benefit. I felt myself wanting a reprieve, a moment to catch my breath, to rest, but none was forthcoming.
As raw as it is demonstrative... Potent science fiction... (4/5 Stars)
No comments:
Post a Comment